A 22-day illegal correctional officers strike in New York state that affected more than 30 prisons officially ended on March 10, affecting limits on solitary confinement that went into effect in 2022.

Correctional officers began striking on Feb. 17, calling on the state to address staffing shortages and to repeal or reform the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act. The act, which was signed into law by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2021, caps most instances of solitary confinement in a segregated housing unit to 15 consecutive days, a limit recommended by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, which concluded that time beyond this limit amounts to torture. 

The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) said it would honor a deal negotiated with the state’s Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA), the union representing the officers, only if 85% of strikers returned to work by March 10.

The deal required that 11,500 workers return to work for it to take effect. Only 10,000 showed up on March 10, and more than 2,000 employees were fired. Still, DOCCS considered the strike over and honored some aspects of the deal, including suspending part of the HALT Act.

Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III announced the end of the strike on March 10 in an update. He said the DOCCS would honor a “90-day HALT program suspension,” among other aspects.

When asked for clarification on what specific elements of the HALT Act would be temporarily suspended, the DOCCS said, “The Commissioner … will exercise his statutory discretion under the HALT Act and continue the temporary suspension of only the programming element of the HALT Act for 90 days” starting from March 6 as per a memo, according to email comments to Prism.

The suspension of “programming” is based on a current staffing crisis, but DOCCS said that “all other provisions of HALT will be followed in accordance with the law.” It remains unclear what “programming” refers to, and many advocates question whether suspending some elements of the law are even legal.

The Legal Aid Society (LAS) announced it had secured an order to show cause in order to force DOCCS to clarify by March 20 what provisions of the law it has suspended.

“HALT is the law in New York, and DOCCS has no authority to suspend it,” said Antony Gemmell, an attorney for LAS who signed the ruling, in a released statement.

Still, no clear answer from DOCCS has surfaced, and LAS did not respond to Prism’s email requests for clarification. The order is part of a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of disabled New Yorkers incarcerated in state prisons regarding violations of the act.

Besides its restrictions on the length of solitary confinement, the HALT Act wholly prohibits its use for people over the age of 55, under the age of 21, or anyone who is pregnant or has a disability. It also establishes Residential Rehabilitation Units as alternative housing units that provide rehabilitative programs.

While the act itself provides crucial protections for incarcerated people, there have been a number of shortcomings in its implementation. Inspector General Lucy Lang released a report in 2024 reviewing the HALT Act’s implementation and found that DOCCS violated the 15-day cap to segregated confinement rule. 

The department has also failed to provide the required written justification for placing someone in solitary confinement and relies on an “antiquated paper-based recordkeeping system” that makes it impossible to track how much recreation and programming time people were actually offered, according to Lang’s report.

Striking officers argued that the HALT Act makes their job harder by limiting the use of solitary as a disciplinary tool.

However, advocates for incarcerated people argue that solitary confinement makes people inside and outside of prisons more vulnerable. Those placed in restrictive housing have been shown to have higher recidivism rates.

“This law actually reduces violence, if only they would implement it the way it’s supposed to be,” said Anisah Sabur, solitary confinement survivor and an organizer with the #HALTsolitary campaign to end solitary confinement.

Alternatively, other programs that sought to build community and help people address underlying issues saw more success in helping reform the lives of incarcerated people. The Merle Cooper program, for instance, created opportunities to experience group sessions, peer-led initiatives, and out-of-cell time for incarcerated people who were separated from the general prison population. The program ran from 1977 to 2013.

Sabur said that the act, in full practice, “would put back in place these types of restorative programmings so that people can then be held accountable for their behaviors and change the behavior.”

It’s also worth noting that the strikes began the same week that indictments were to be unsealed against officers involved in the death of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility. Six officers were charged with murder, three with manslaughter, and one with tampering with evidence.

The strike caused conditions inside prisons to deteriorate. In some prisons, people had to go without hot food and showers. At least nine incarcerated people died during the strike, most recently 22-year-old Messiah Nantwi, who was being held at Mid-State Correctional Facility across the street from Marcy. Nantwi was declared dead after being transferred to a hospital on March 1.

Nantwi’s cellmate, the sole incarcerated witness in the room, detailed his account of watching Nantwi get beaten into unconsciousness by the Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT) in phone calls, electronic messages, and a handwritten letter to New York Focus. Nantwi was dragged out of his cell, and prisoners were forced to mop Nantwi’s blood before internal investigations arrived, his cellmate said.

Soon after his death, Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement that “early reports point to extremely disturbing conduct leading to Mr. Nantwi’s death, and I am committed to accountability for all involved.” She added that 15 officers have been placed on leave since his death.

Despite Hochul’s persistent push to expand surveillance in prisons for the safety of incarcerated people, the CERT officers were not wearing body cameras, the cellmate said.

“They will never, ever show you what they do to an incarcerated person,” Sabur said. She said she witnessed staff instigate fights between incarcerated people. “They show you what they want you to see,” she said, expressing concern that authorities “cut and splice” footage from body cams or facilities. 

Sabur called into question what events could have possibly led up to the footage of officers fatally beating Brooks. “No one will ever know the real truth because the camera doesn’t tell it,” she said.

After the strike, the state briefly considered how to apply the Taylor Law, which prohibits public employees from striking. Ultimately, DOCCS decided to seek neither jail time nor fines for officers who violated the law. The state has spent over $25 million in response to the strike.

The National Guard remains at prisons to help with the worsened staffing shortage. Sabur said this could be an opportunity to progress prison reform.

“If you don’t have the staff to cover the facilities, start to decarcerate,” she said. “You have people who are eligible for parole, but the parole board refused to see them as human beings and as the people that they are today, and not the people who had committed that offense [decades ago]. It’s time to let them go, reduce the population, and then you can manage your staff.”

Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Stephanie Harris, Copy Editor